Chapter 77 Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands
After hanging up, Vernon glared at Jasper with undisguised hostility. "Lucky for you! Our employer says she doesn't know you. Now get the hell out of here!"
He leaned close to Jasper's face, spittle flying as he snarled, "Remember this—if you breathe one word about tonight, I'll make sure you and your family regret it for the rest of your miserable lives! Got it?"
Jasper shuddered dramatically, nodding frantically as his face went pale. "Y-yes, I understand! I won't say anything! I didn't see anything!"
"Get lost!" Vernon waved dismissively.
Jasper scrambled to his feet like he'd been granted a divine reprieve, stumbling and nearly falling as he rushed toward the warehouse's only exit, where faint moonlight leaked through the doorway.
As he passed Ethan and Emma, he appeared to trip slightly, his small leg "accidentally" brushing against Ethan's elbow, which was hidden behind his back.
Ethan's body tensed slightly, his fist tightening around the tiny device concealed in his palm.
Emma's head snapped up toward Jasper's retreating figure, worry flickering beneath her forced composure.
Jasper burst through the warehouse door, bitter wind immediately cutting through his thin clothes. He didn't care. Instead of running away, he used the shadows to quickly duck behind a massive rusted oil drum outside the warehouse wall, holding his breath and perfectly concealing himself.
Inside the warehouse.
About twenty minutes later, the sharp staccato of high heels echoed from the distance, growing closer.
The rusted iron door creaked open again, and a graceful but malevolent figure entered.
She was Clara!
She wore a fitted black dress under an expensive fur coat. Heavy makeup couldn't hide the exhaustion and madness in her eyes.
The moment she entered, her gaze locked onto the two small figures illuminated under the harsh lights—Ethan and Emma!
The warehouse's putrid air made her delicate features scrunch in disgust, but when she saw the two children she despised with every fiber of her being, that disgust was instantly consumed by blazing hatred.
The light cast twisted shadows across her once-beautiful face, now contorted by bone-deep jealousy and resentment.
She stopped before Ethan and Emma, towering over them, her voice as cold as poisonous ice. "Like mother, like children. Your mother, Emily, that worthless bitch, stole everything that should have been mine!"
Ethan and Emma huddled together, Ethan gripping Emma's hand tightly. Neither spoke, meeting her hysterical rage with equally cold, guarded stares.
Clara was completely consumed by her hatred. Seeing the children's defiant eyes only fueled her fury. "What are you staring at? Your trashy mother—she's nothing but an abandoned woman! What right does she have to live in that mansion? What right does she have to the finest things? She's nothing but a slut who sleeps around and pops out bastards to climb the social ladder!"
Her voice grew more agitated, her face grotesque with rage. "If she hadn't birthed you two little bastards for the Windsor family, why would they even look twice at her? Someone like her? She's not worthy!"
She suddenly pointed at Emma, her voice shrill. "And you, you little whore! Just like your mother—a manipulative little bitch! Already wrapping boys around your finger at school to fight your battles!"
Emma shrank back at the harsh words, but Ethan immediately stepped in front of her, his small chest puffed out defiantly as he stared Clara down. "You're lying! My mom earned everything herself!"
Clara burst into shrill laughter that echoed eerily through the empty warehouse. "Earned it? By spreading her legs for Charles! You two bastards are proof of her shameless gold-digging! Your very existence is her mark of shame!"
Her emotions spiraled completely out of control, years of jealousy toward Emily and resentment toward the Windsor family's indifference pouring out onto two innocent children.
"You should never have been born! Especially you, Emma—it's all because of you! Because of you, you little bitch, Charles grows colder toward me every day! At the Windsor Manor last time, did you poison him against me?"
The more she thought about Charles's tender moments with Emma, about his desperate attempts to distance himself from her, the more she blamed everything on Emma.
"Today I'm going to destroy your seductive face! Let's see how your mother uses you as a tool to win Charles's sympathy, then!" Clara's eyes blazed with murderous intent as she suddenly pulled a gleaming box cutter from her designer purse!
The sharp blade extended with a metallic click, reflecting the harsh floodlight in a blinding flash.
"Die, you little bitch!" Clara's face twisted into a cruel, demented smile as she raised the box cutter high, slashing it toward Emma's terrified but achingly beautiful face!
"Emma!" Ethan's eyes blazed with terror as he tried to shield her with his body, but the distance was too close, the attack too fast!
Just as the blade was about to fall, Emma's panicked pupils dilating in horror, a thunderous shout exploded through the warehouse!
"Stop!"
It was Perry who had been mostly silent until now!
He lunged forward and grabbed Clara's wrist, which was holding the knife!
Vernon, sweating profusely, rushed to help restrain her.
They'd signed up for kidnapping and ransom, not for killing the two children!
If they let Clara hurt the hostages under their watch, especially disfigure Emma, the whole game would change!
They'd called her here just to implicate her further and squeeze more money out of the situation, never imagining she'd actually be vicious enough to go through with it!
These were five-year-old children!
Besides, they were the ones who'd contacted Emily. If the kids turned up dead when it came time to collect, Emily would come after them with everything she had!
That ten million dollars would be gone forever! And honestly, this little girl was just too lovely to harm.
Clara screamed as pain shot through her wrist, the box cutter clattering to the floor.
She struggled wildly, her hair disheveled, makeup smeared. "Let me go! Release me! I need to destroy this little bastard! You idiots, get out of my way!"
Chaos erupted in the warehouse.
No one noticed the small figure crouched in the shadows behind the oil drum outside, teeth clenched, eyes cold as ice.
'Soon. Just hold on a little longer.'